Time Travel

I can’t believe how fast these days go by. I would love to write about what happened on my second day, but I don’t know if I can tell what happened then apart from what happened just yesterday.

Basically, we are meeting our friends almost every day. I also met my tutor Maya who has been an enormous help with all the formal things like alien registration, opening a bank account and sorting out the JASSO scholarship stuff. Without her I would have died under a flood of paper forms and kanji.

I also got my keitai! It’s a sweet Sony Ericsson. Here’s what it looks like:

It’s good fun writing “mails” on it, but also really slow compared to regular texting in England or Germany, as I have yet to get used to the keypad. The phone was free with a 2 year contract, which I will have to pay for to cancel. I chose the packet option with the least minutes, e.g. the cheapest, and added “pakehoudai”, which means “all you can use packets”. Packets are data transfer units used for sending mails and browsing the web. In a month I’ll pay anywhere between 1800 and 5800 yen, depending on packet use.

The arrival… of destiny!

Dear blog,

hi. To tell you the truth, I have skipped many stages of preparation for Japan, such as packing, saying goodbyes, arranging meetings in Japan etc. But those are all natural, boring things so I’ll spare you for now.

I AM IN JAPAN!! \o/

Kat and I arrived 2 days ago at about 8:45am in Narita Airport and was picked up by my friend Tatsu after standing in line at immigration for ages. Tatsu picked us up in an amazing van, stuffed to the brim with technology and leg space. Mhh. He dropped us off directly at our dormitory, where we were greeted by my friend Tom, who had arrived a week or two earlier and had already traveled to Okinawa and such with his girlfriend Suzu.

So Tom showed us around the dorm and we started unpacking in our rooms when it was time for a shower (oh god, the smell). Tatsu had invited us round to his house for dinner. Amazing food! Tenpura, daikon, potato salad, tea, ice cream, YES! His family is really nice, too, and understanding of the fact that Kat and my Japanese is.. below mediocre.

After dinner we hung out a bit upstairs chatting, while Kat fell asleep in a recliner. After Tatsu took us home it was straight to bed for us. We had an incredible first day.